Defining the Ideal Athlete for Hitting

Baseball is an athletic sport, and the guys who play it are athletic. If you follow my stuff, you know I think (somehow) athleticism has become an underrated portion of hitting. Show a hitting instructor some footage of a successful hitter with a swing that goes against the instructor’s beliefs and you will get the following response, “well, that guy is an athletic freak.” Really? And you know this how? What would a “freak” athlete look like for hitting? Let’s try to find out. I don’t know about you, but when I think of athlete I think of Usain Bolt. At 6’5” and 207 lbs. Bolt completely shattered the world record in the 100 m sprint. If you have read Faster, Higher, Stronger you know using some basic mathematics we can estimate that he could also shatter the long jump world record if he tried. I am pretty sure that anyone would say that Usain Bolt is a premier athlete. But would he be a premier athlete for hitting?

Maybe not. In the study Anthropometric and Performance Comparisons in Pro Baseball Players Hoffman et al. [1] found that sprint and pro agility times had no correlation with offensive production (home runs or slugging percentage). Meanwhile, lean body mass (LBM), grip strength, and vertical jump power had (numerous studies have shown the same results when correlating to bat speed). Bonnette et al.[2] as well as Szymanski et al. [3] found that rotational power also correlated with bat velocity. So what about our friend Bolt? Would he be a premier athlete for hitting? He would definitely get credit for vertical jump power, but not as much on the lean body mass and grip strength. Sprinting is more of an anti-rotation event, so we would probably guess he wouldn’t score the highest there either (compared to say a discus thrower). How about that? Maybe the most athletic guy on the planet wouldn’t be a great athlete for hitting. Who would be? Hmm. A couple guys come to mind…

At 6’3” 230 lbs. and 6’4” 240 lbs. respectively, Pujols and Cabrera have LBM to spare. Lower body power… yeah I think so (these guys need loose fit pants if you know what I mean). Grip strength? Check. Rotational power? I think so. These guys are THE premier hitting athletes. Sure, their shuttle and sprint times suck, but you don’t have to go far in the batter’s box. This leads us to a couple points. One, in terms of athletic development, we need to develop programs for baseball players better suited for the requirements of the sport. And those requirements for hitting are slapping muscle on dudes, giving them lower body power, and the ability to throw a med ball through a wall (while still maintaining enough "athleticism" for the demands of the player's position). Two, as hitting instructors, we need to have a greater appreciation for guys who don’t fit this model of hitting athlete. Basically smaller guys who can still mash. You know, Andrew McCutchen (you knew I would find a way to work him in).